and other things....
This is my daily art blog.
I'm artist Dee Sanchez and I live and work in Alameda, New Mexico - the land of blue skies, red hills, and three unique cultures.
What a beautiful place to paint! Join me on my daily painting quest, my plein air adventures, my video logs, my "getting ready for a show" preparations, my painting tips, and I may even throw in an opinion or two...I also document my struggles with getting healthy and my crazy family life

Friday, September 11, 2015

palette knife vs. brush

Which is better? Palette Knife or Brush?

This is the block in of my newest painting

for my November solo show at Sumner and Dene Gallery.

I am in the zone right now -

once I start working on the big ones, I can't seem to stop!

I'm hoping to finish this one tomorrow.

SO....

I've been seeing a lot of palette knife paintings floating around lately.

I mean A LOT.

It seems like a lot of artists want to try out the

new and trendy style that has actually been around for a long, long time.

I know this because I was one of those people.

I have books on knife painting from way back that are printed in black and white. No color pictures at all.

That's how old they are.

They sat on my shelf for a really long time.

I would take them out every once in a while

(usually when I was cleaning the studio)and look at them,

thinking that one day I would actually use them.

Fast forward to 2015.

I was rather depressed, stagnant, and unmotivated, for lots of reasons.

I left my very nice gallery, and decided to change my style.

To using a palette knife.

I didn't really experiment, I just jumped in.

And I loved it!

The feedback was great, and I thought, okay,

I'm onto something.

So I painted lots of palette knife paintings:

And then,something happened.

I didn't like it so much anymore.

And I couldn't figure out why.

I mean, I thought they were decent paintings and I sold a lot of them.

1 comment:

I find that some judicious use of a palette knife towards the end of the painting can enhance areas, however, for full pallet knife paintings, or even mostly palette knife paintings, there is a 'sameness' to the piece. Just my thoughts. I prefer the brush, myself, and your brushwork is lovely, Dee. I remember Jerry Fresia telling us (in a workshop) that we needed a palette knife to mix our paint with, and for nothing else!